Gotta Move That Gear Up!

So remember back when I said I would update once a week? Well that kinda didn't happen. To make up for it, I've posted everything from my side blog on this website. I've also got a couple posts planned out that will be up soon. In short, cool stuff added, expect more updates.

This post will happen soon dammit

Backlog Review: Catherine

Catherine is owned by Atlus

I debated whether or not to review Catherine because it got a lot of coverage due to its sheer strangeness in combination with being developed by the Persona team. The game also sold very well considering what it is. Despite this, I feel obligated to touch on it due to its sheer uniqueness.

Catherine is a puzzle game about adult relationships. If that doesn't seem like the kind of thing you would like to play turn back now, it only gets worse from here. I should also mention that when I say adult relationships I mean marriage and commitment and maturity, not sex (though there is a healthy amount of that too). Still here? Good. Lets get into the nitty gritty.

Catherine stars Vincent, a typical average Joe in a steady relationship with his high school sweetheart Katherine (with a K). Katherine is pressuring Vincent to tie the knot, while Vincent is unsure due to a mix of fear and resistance to change. While getting drunk at the bar with his friends he runs into a girl named Catherine (with a C) who he has a drunken affair with. Meanwhile a string of mysterious deaths has afflicted the town, and Vincent starts having strange dreams, which is where the real gameplay comes in.

Most of the game takes place in Vincent's dreams, which consists of a block pushing puzzle. The rest of the game takes place in both the bar Vincent frequents, and lengthy cutscenes that change depending on Vincent's decisions in the rest of the game.

The block pushing part of the game is very entertaining and surprising deep. Solutions for the various puzzles are numerous and require serious noggin use to figure out. Some of these puzzles get agonizingly frustrating (I almost threw my controller during the clocktower stage) and take a lot of fun out the game. Sometimes I wish I could have just skipped the dream segments and seen the rest of the story. When a player wants to skip the actual game to watch a cutscene it doesn't exactly scream praise for the design of the game.

The bar bits of the game are a nice break up of the more intense block climbing segments. Vincent can talk to his fellow alcoholics and learn about their problems. Turns out a lot of them are having the same strange dreams as Vincent, I wonder why. Who Vincent talks to can change a good portion of the story, as many side tales are hidden with other characters. Another delightful side point to the bar is the random alcohol trivia that is given out whenever Vincent finishes a drink. These quickly became my favorite part of the bar scenes.

The story of Catherine is somewhat disorderly. Towards the beginning it tries to be a horror game, but it sort of fails due to the repetition of the levels. The story then focuses very heavily on Vincent's relationship to K/Catherine. After a while this focus gets downright tedious. Then, the story makes a 180 degree turn and pulls all sorts of strange stuff out of its ass. It leaves off being one of the strangest endings I've ever seen; not really satisfying, just strange.

Surprisingly, this isn't the strangest thing the game has to offer

Catherine in whole is a unique experience. Giving it an adjective like "great" doesn't really make a lot of sense in this case. If this is something that sounds appealing, check it out. Otherwise, steer clear. Don't worry, I won't think any less of you.

Backlog Review: Trenched

Owned by Double Fine and Microsoft

I have the biggest man crush on Tim Schafer. The guy is designing genius, and I have yet to play a game by him that I didn't like (despite my complete lack of ability at adventure games). He is also one of the only people that knows how to make a genuinely funny game without sacrificing all other aspects of gameplay.  Schafer's newest project, titled Trenched (or Iron Brigade apparently), keeps the high standard of Schafer quality.
Trenched is, at its core, a tower defense game with WWI giant robot mechs. Just the thought alone of paying for a tower defense game really turned me off to it. Why should I pay 15 dollars for a game that I can play on flash for free? Trenched solves this problem by offering many different ways to play the game in the form of different chassis. There are "engineering chassis" which focus on laying down as many towers as possible, allowing the player to sit in the back and watch the action like a pansy. For men, there are "assault chassis" which focus on bringing HUGE GUNS that shoot EXPLOSIONS!  Friends don't let friends use engineering chassis.

Using a gun smaller than this means you still wet your bed at night

The plot of Trenched revolves around two main characters, neither of which is playable. Both characters were fighting on the same side in an unnamed war, one an apple pie inhaling American family man, and the other a dirty communist. One day they were touched by a strange alien force that gave both of them incredible intelligence. The communist, being evil and all, created a race of television creatures to take over the world called the "broadcast" (continuing Schafer's ironic hated of television). The american created giant mechs to fight them. The player is a random solider fighting in one of these mechs.

Honestly as far as Schafer goes, the story is pretty weak. It doesn't have the depth to it that Psychonauts or Grim Fandango brings; it is also lacking in the comedy department when faced with his previous works. There are some great one liners and subtle jokes, but none of it is as memorable as the off the wall humor in Psychonauts or Brutal Legend. The best humor is found in the subtitles that barrage the screen 60's batman style, unfortunately  reading them all is a challenge, so most of it falls on deaf ears. As a whole the entire game felt dialogue-light, humorous or otherwise. Many times I was just wondering why there wasn't more noise, some levels even felt eerily silent.

The good news is that the gameplay WORKS. Big guns are fun to shoot and each level offers a unique challenge that forces one to think on their feet.  There are tons of different bad guys each with different abilities that may not devastate on their own, are cruel with certain other enemies.  There is a ton of cool stuff to unlock and play around with. The bosses are challenging and go far beyond the ol' shoot-him-in-the-glowy-bit mentality that dominates modern gaming.

Trenched is a overall a "good" game. It is not a classic like some of Schafer's other works, but it certainly is worth its price tag. Fans of Schafer or giant robots really can't go wrong with this one.

Backlog Review: Spelunky

Spelunky is owned by Mossmouth and Derek Yu

I watch my tiny adventurer descend down the passage.  My fingers tighten up and sweat starts to form on my brow.  I think to myself, "THIS time I will get it for sure..."  The game starts and I quickly analyze my surroundings.  A pit with a couple cavemen, A few snakes wandering about, and some gems down a deserted passageway. Not too bad.  I grab the gems and try to sneak up on the cavemen.  I leap down only to miss his head by a few pixels, crashing to the ground and stunning myself.  The caveman sees me and goes nuts crashing into me, reducing my precious life by another point, and stunning me again.  I manage to get up before the caveman turns around and make a flying leap off the nearest ledge, hoping for the best.  The screen scrolls down to reveal a spike pit directly below, but it is too late to avoid it. I land with a dull thud, my remaining life instantly extinguished.  I grunt in frustration and return to the title screen.  As I send my adventurer down into the pit I think to myself, "THIS time I will get it for sure..."
The Spelunky experience is a frustrating and addicting one.  You play as an Indiana Jones style adventurer searching a cave for treasure.  Each cave is randomly generated, so nothing is ever what you expect or hope it to be.  If you plan to play Spelunky, be prepared to die.  A lot.  Everything in this game wants to kill you or will kill you at the slightest provocation.  There are many one hit kills and ridiculously devilish traps just waiting to take a chunk out of your precious health.  Despite this, Spelunky is an utter blast to play.  You have just enough tools to make you think with every scenario.  Risk the snakes in order to get to a treasure chest or supply crate?  Or take the safe route straight to the exit?  It is an intense and rewarding experience that will always have you coming back for one more try. The difficulty curve might be a bit high for some, but I encourage all those who wish to play to stick with it.  Spelunky has been for the best platforming experiences I've ever had, and I can't wait to do it again when the game comes out on Xbox Live.

Backlog Review: Aquaria

Aquaria owned by bit blot

The problem with Steam is that so many great games get completely drowned out in sea of mediocre games.  When a truly great game gets released it is easy to miss it as it gets swept under the tide . Aquaria is the pearl at the bottom of the sea of uninspired shooters and banal puzzle games (expect a lot of ocean-related puns on this one).
Aquaria was developed by Bit Blot, a two person company of Alec Holowka and Derek Yu. The game was released in 2008 on PC computers.  This is the only game released by the developers so far and it is currently being ported to ipad.  A sequel has been hinted at but thus far no development has taken place.
Aquaria is a game about exploration.  There are powerups and bad guys and all that other great stuff that we play video games for, but at its core this game is about swimming to a new area and being taken aback by the beauty of it.  The style of the game is similar to that of a 90's screensaver of an aquarium.  despite that the game looks fantastic in motion.  The protagonist of Aquaria is some sort of human-fish hybrid that leaves her home in order to explore the ocean and recover her memories lost to plot convenient amnesia.  Gameplay can be done with a mouse only but I HIGHLY recommend plugging in a controller if you have one.
The game takes place under the ocean in a fantasy world filled with fish and bizarre creatures both hostile and tame.  Exploration is the main theme over combat and a good portion of the game is spent swimming around looking at all the pretty fish.  When combat is a priority the game handles flawlessly, just swimming in some of the more hostile zones can put you in serious danger of moving down a few rungs on the food chain. Each dungeon has its own feel and puzzles that are sure to challenge.  Some fish shoot enough lasers to make a Touhou blush.  The game is also paced extraordinarily well for an exploration game; just when there is nothing left to do in one area, a new area with a completely different style pops up.
Aquaria's weaknesses are few and far between.  In the introduction paragraph I hinted that the plot is not exactly what some would call "strong."  While the plot works enough to be watchable Aquaria won't be winning any awards for writing anytime soon.  Another problem is that the game plays great with a controller, the menu system becomes completely unnavigable without a mouse.  Changing forms requires street fighter-esque  inputs that can be absurdly sensitive.  Changing forms in a harrowing situation becomes a trial of patience.
Overall I cannot recommend this game enough.  Aquaria is everything I love about video games and more.  With the industry focusing on shooters truly great games of the platforming genre and few and far between.  Aquaria is a reminder that old-school gaming is far from dead.